Design Trends for a New Year

Branding and design are core skills for us here, and every year we see many articles on predictions and trend-spotting for UX, UI and graphic design.

We also see the cycle of trends repeating. For instance, more than one list has anti-design as a current trend. Add in its cousin grunge and we’re back with David Carson and his groundbreaking Ray Gun in the early 1990s. We all go through it in different ways. The world of design focusses on the moment and doesn’t always pay attention to its history. We’ve all thought we’re the first ones to break new ground, only to have someone come up and tap us on the shoulder and shove something older and dustier into our hands and burst our bubble of privileged isolation.

The great thing about developing a broader sense of design history over time is that it increases the size of our tool chest. We’re able to pull pieces out and apply them to projects that will benefit from them. For some brands, it’s important to project that they’re on the leading edge and trendy. For others, conveying being steady, stable and trustworthy rises to the top.

As designers, it’s in our character to push boundaries in an effort to have our clients stand out against their competitors. For us, the better question to ask is not how to apply the latest design trends to a client, but which design approach will resonate best with a client’s customers and potential customers? And then, how can we make that approach something fresh and memorable?

We find our best results with clients come from listening and learning about their business, understanding how products and services are traditionally advertised in their vertical, and then developing a rationale and design that moves the client and their business forward.

That often takes an iterative approach, because trust and respect need to be earned on both sides of the agency-client relationship, and marketing needs to evolve over time because the way companies see themselves needs to evolve over time. While some businesses leap to the new and the now, there are just as many that need time to move from a more conservative position to one that is progressive.

And there are different working styles. Some clients like to be there every step of the way. Others prefer to delegate. It’s our job to make each journey productive – capturing customers’ attention and motivating them to take action – while we both work to achieve our clients’ business goals.